Dell PowerStore Reviews

We are resellers and Dell partners, so we install Dell PowerStore for our customers.

The most valuable feature of Dell PowerStore is its easy-to-use feature, specifically the simplicity. What makes Dell PowerStore simple is that users don't have to worry about the storage group; they just set up the storage and are ready to go without worrying about which kind of RAID group to set up or the protection of this group, as everything is managed by the storage itself.

The first benefit of Dell PowerStore for my company is the speed and low latency with low latency working workload of the storage. The second feature is the security, because it has Secure Snapshot and other security features, ensuring the data is fast and protected in a good way.

I would improve Dell PowerStore by enhancing the replication feature because currently, users are limited to one applier, from one cluster, a Dell PowerStore cluster, to another Dell PowerStore cluster, but are not able to configure a three-site scenario. 

The second improvement would be to enable quantification of the snapshot footprint. 

The replication feature mentioned is what I find missing in Dell PowerStore.

I have been using the product for about four years.

The overall stability and reliability of Dell PowerStore is very good because I perform many upgrades without any downtime.

The solution is scalable. Dell PowerStore has features that specifically cater to the needs of small or medium business organizations because users can choose small size disks that are scalable to the smaller size of some companies.

I would evaluate customer service and tech support as fair. Nine out of ten times when I open a case, it's solved in the right time and in the right way, but there could be one out of ten times when it takes longer than expected.

Positive

Before using Dell PowerStore, I used Compellent, which is the generation before Dell PowerStore. It still has some features that are not included in Dell PowerStore, but I hope that the gap will disappear in time.

For lower budget needs, I have considered other solutions that aren't Dell, such as ME products, which are the main two products we use, choosing the right one with the right budget.

Dell PowerStore has grown with my company. We already have some customers who buy upgrades to their storage, in terms of expanding the size or buying new models. 

Dell PowerStore has supported our growth and operational success by providing a deeper discount, which is great from a selling point of view. We also received a demo unit, which is a storage we can use in a customer environment without any strings attached, so the customer can try the product before buying.

My advice to organizations considering Dell PowerStore is to start small because from both the perspective of speed and space, you probably don't need to buy a bigger Dell PowerStore because the performance is already there, even in the lower products. 

For space, you can always expand the one you have, so don't buy too much space, but the right amount for you at that time, and then expand if you need.

I would rate the overall Dell PowerStore product an eight out of ten.

The main use cases for Dell PowerStore involve using it for applications that are compute and storage-sensitive. It is mainly the monitoring system that has a heavy load. Other than that, there are some critical internal applications that cannot have any time drift. 

One of the specific challenges we are trying to address is migrating from our existing infrastructure. The power consumption isn't entirely dependent on Dell PowerStore, but when it comes to heavy applications, the power consumption goes high. We have a Dell PowerStore at three or four sites right now. We are trying to see if we can roll it out to another three to five sites. 

We have about five Dell PowerStore appliances, and we are using the 500T model.

Dell PowerStore's compression and deduplication technologies are a big help for our organization. It's saving us a lot of storage compared to what we were previously using. We are transitioning from a typical infrastructure to a cloud-native infrastructure. It is helping us move applications to a containerized environment and getting the performance we need.

Its pricing is good when compared with what we were paying for the previous storage appliance and other things. We now have everything together. The management is pretty easy for us. A new person can easily understand it. It works very well for our mission-critical applications that can't have any delays.

Dell PowerStore’s data resiliency and cybersecurity features meet our organization's needs. 

The specific features of Dell PowerStore that I find the most impactful for our organization include using it for our NAS and SAN storage, which is a relief for us. It's natively supported with our VMware infrastructure. We are still trying to figure out how we can utilize it more. Due to the low latency on IOPS, it helps us with our critical apps that cannot afford delays. It decreases the number of incidents. The IOPS part works out well for us. 

The management UI is pretty decent and gets the job done, but the upgrade process is challenging. 

I've been working with Dell PowerStore for a year and a half.

I haven't had any performance issues with Dell PowerStore so far. 

Scalability is something we are looking at. Hopefully, we can get it in a cluster formation. At the moment, we are seeing if we can get it to a point where we do not have to interact with it every day.

We have more than 2,000 users and 11 people working with Dell PowerStore.

Dell's technical support is good. Dell has always been helpful for technical support. I didn't personally have a chance to open a case with them for Dell PowerStore, but my colleague did, and he had a good experience with them. We struggled a bit due to our time zone differences because the site we purchased it for is not in India; it's in the EU. That was the only thing that we struggled with a bit. Otherwise, the support has been good.

Positive

We used Pure Storage. We transitioned to Dell PowerStore because, with the VMs that we were running, Pure Storage used to crash. It was a pretty old solution. It hadn't been changed for a while, so the decision was made to go with Dell PowerStore.

The initial setup of Dell PowerStore was straightforward. It was pretty easy for us to set up. It took two to three days, maximum, to deploy Dell PowerStore in one location.

The migration part was a bit daunting for us. We had to move our existing data from one appliance to another.

In terms of maintenance, we haven't had any failed hard drives. It has been running fine. We just have to do maintenance every six months and make sure that the BIOS and firmware are up to date.

It required three people for deployment: one for the physical work and two engineers for migrating and managing our data.

In the long term, Dell PowerStore will help reduce our organization's CAPEX, but right now, it is a pretty hefty investment for our team.

The pricing structure and licensing model of Dell PowerStore are pretty decent. It's pretty competitive. The pricing has never been an issue, and it's fairly good. We are getting NVMe drives, so it's better than the market.

We considered distributed storage options such as Cohesity for storage solutions. We probably also checked HyperFlex with Nutanix.

Dell PowerStore's UI is good. The upgrade process is a bit complex, but there are no performance issues. Dell's hardware has always been pretty solid.

We have the VMware ecosystem and KVM. We have multiple OS running. We are looking into using it as a backup solution. We are thinking of replacing our existing storage infrastructure and have our backup solution running on Dell PowerStore.

It's a pretty reliable solution if someone's looking for a total replacement of their existing infrastructure. It's pretty easy to implement. That's one of the pros we've seen personally. It's a straightforward product, and there's not much hassle. 

I would rate Dell PowerStore an eight out of ten.

We use Dell PowerStore for storage management. We are using the 500T model. We have a standalone box and are not currently clustering multiple appliances.

The management portal is particularly user-friendly. We can access it easily, and the management software is not complicated.

With the recent firmware upgrade, we have a feature to restrict the bandwidth and throughput specifically for the volume.

The compression and deduplication that Dell PowerStore offers is performing well, especially compared to our previous storage solutions. We are achieving approximately a 2.8:1 ratio.

One suggestion for improvement would be related to volume management by both controllers. Currently, a volume is managed by a single controller, with alternate controllers managing different volumes based on load distribution. For example, if volume one is managed by controller one, volume two will be managed by controller two. In other vendors' solutions, both controllers participate in the I/Os. It would be more efficient if the volumes were controlled by both controllers in an active-active configuration.

The firmware upgrade takes longer than the other boxes. It should be better.

We have been using Dell PowerStore for three years.

I would rate the stability of the product at eight out of ten.

We experienced some concerns during a previous firmware upgrade when the controllers became unresponsive, which affected operations.

We have not performed any online scaling or scale-out operations as we use a simple standalone box. However, I believe the scalability features would be good, though I cannot speak from direct experience.

We have about 1,000 users.

I would rate the technical support a seven out of ten.

Neutral

We have NetApp AFF400, which is also good. However, since Dell PowerStore is a mid-range storage solution, it cannot be directly compared with our enterprise storage solutions. We use CloudIQ with Dell PowerStore.

It is easy. It took about a week.

We are not using ransomware protection. It is enabled in the new code, but we are not using any ransomware protection. We take a snapshot for any protection.

It is user-friendly, so we can easily manage storage. Many features are there. Compression is good, and the data configuration is good. 

I would rate Dell PowerStore an eight out of ten.

The use case for companies to buy Dell PowerStore is that it's an all-flash storage, which is needed to save their data or applications that demand faster responses. They brought it because the read and write operations of Dell PowerStore are extremely high, and the IOPS are very good compared to the other Hitachi level storage.

Dell PowerStore helps the organizations that I sell to by allowing them to buy less storage and store more capacity, which helps them save costs. Additionally, it's very durable and priced appropriately, which helps the organization to save money.

The most valuable feature of Dell PowerStore is the data compression, which is extremely good, having a data compression ratio of 5:1 that rarely other storages have in the market. This feature is very good compared to others.

What makes the data compression feature of Dell PowerStore so good is that if you need to store, for example, 100 TB of storage, you just have to buy 1/5 of it, the capacity, and then you can store that data. The compression features in the storage make it very special compared to others, apart from the day-to-day, normal data retrieving capabilities such as data deduplication, which this has something more that no other storages offer.

I would suggest that Dell PowerStore could come with various other features, such as a hybrid model apart from only all-flash, which would really help the customers.

I have been using Dell PowerStore for the past four years.

Dell PowerStore has rarely had any downtime; I have never come across it having any downtime, and the technical support is extremely good, which makes it a good product.

Dell PowerStore does not meet the needs of a small organization; Dell has Unity which meets the entry-level or SMB segment. Dell PowerStore is for mid and high enterprise segments, catering to bigger customers. Dell PowerStore can grow with a small company or if the company has less than 2,000 employees; it can grow to meet their needs.

Customer service and support for Dell PowerStore are very good, so once customers buy Dell PowerStore, they always choose to buy it again since the performance is extremely nice.

Positive

Besides Dell PowerStore, we offer other solutions such as HP solutions, Lenovo solutions, and NetApp solutions. Someone might pick Dell PowerStore versus HP or NetApp because PowerStore has the unique compression feature that other products lack, allowing them to buy less storage and save more capacity.

All Dell products are quite easy to deploy and maintain.

The success metrics that companies use to determine their ROI for Dell PowerStore are based on the kind of performance they get or the returns they see once Dell PowerStore is deployed, which are quite substantial since they always look at expanding it in the near future. They don't only buy it for a specific application; once they see the performance, they try to utilize it for all other applications as well.

The pricing of Dell PowerStore is a bit high, as it is not an entry-level storage, so it is priced higher than it should be.

The companies I sell Dell PowerStore to are extremely happy, as they keep expanding it and keep buying more shelves to expand the storage. 

A con for Dell PowerStore would be if somebody has standardized on certain products, such as only buying Dell or HP products, which might lead them to choose HP instead. HP is losing a lot of market share because of Dell PowerStore, as they do not have a product that can match it. 

I rate Dell PowerStore nine out of ten.

Some of the main use cases for Dell PowerStore include storing typical user data and virtual machines.

The best features of Dell PowerStore fall in line with most other SANs. The best features include reliability, redundancy, and snapshotting, which are typical capabilities when it comes to a SAN. Dell PowerStore has impacted my organization positively because we have reduced outages. The performance is great and the reliability is excellent. We have had nothing but a positive experience with it.

As far as how Dell PowerStore could be improved, anything can be improved. I would say it needs easier or increased compatibility with other storage solutions for easier application, such as Dell's own PowerVault. They don't communicate or talk to each other, and they don't replicate to each other, which makes it harder to mix and match.

I have used Dell PowerStore for one year.

The scalability of Dell PowerStore is fine and we're happy with that. It is easy to expand Dell PowerStore; you can just buy another one and constantly grow it.

Their support is something I would rate a 10 because I don't have problems with support. This is one of the reasons why we continue using them. They're responsive, knowledgeable, and have a quick turnaround.

Positive

I did use a different solution prior to this year of using Dell PowerStore; we used Compellent. The biggest difference between Compellent and Dell PowerStore is that Compellent was end-of-lifed, so we had no option to continue using it. We had to roll over to something else.

The initial setup of Dell PowerStore is straightforward and not complex. On a scale of one to 10, I would place the setup ease of Dell PowerStore at around an eight.

Dell PowerStore does help reduce my organization's capital expenditures.

We were evaluating other options before choosing Dell PowerStore. We compared Dell PowerStore to other options such as Pure Storage and Unity, as well as NetApp. For us, Dell PowerStore has a lower entry level, where the others started out at a much bigger scale compared to NetApp.

It's a well-known product that seems to be at a cost advantage compared to others. I have been able to consolidate data using Dell PowerStore. Dell PowerStore offers dedupe, which is a standard in this area. For the few, we have close to a petabyte of data, and you save quite a good amount of storage there, about 20 to 30% of your storage comes back because of dedupe. Compression and deduplication technologies are very important for my organization because most of our data resides on virtual machines, and the more virtual machines you have, the better dedupe ratios we get. Overall, I would rate Dell PowerStore an eight.

Our use case specifically for Dell PowerStore is for our e-commerce and data saving purposes. For our partners, we are helping to build Dell PowerStore solutions because it's very easy to reduce the size of the data. It's possible to reduce the size of data five to one compared to other competitors, which is a huge advantage. It saves space in the rack and provides other benefits.

Dell PowerStore caters to the needs of small and medium organizations. From the technical perspective, it's a perfect product for SMB and enterprise customers because of its simplicity to deploy and run. It is easily manageable.

The five to one data compression with Dell PowerStore is valuable. This compression ratio is a huge advantage in the market. We are positioning this as the first valuable feature advancing beyond our other competitors, such as HPE and Lenovo.

From our region perspective, it would be beneficial to have support with local languages for Dell PowerStore. However, English is acceptable for us as it serves our needs.

We have been using Dell PowerStore for two years, and we are satisfied with the storage because it's possible to manage all parts of the storage and align it to our needs fully.

Dell PowerStore supports growth and operational success at our company and our clients' companies. We can operate fully and be ready at any time because of Dell services and support. The RMA rate is perfect for this product.

The benefit of using Dell PowerStore is that we have comprehensive and excellent support from Dell. While we haven't experienced any issues with Dell PowerStore, when we have technical questions, we receive prompt and efficient support from Dell services. This is the main advantage for us in choosing Dell PowerStore. We could have solved our internal problems with cheaper versions from other vendors, but we chose Dell PowerStore because of the additional services we receive.

Positive

Before Dell PowerStore, we used PowerVault ME5, but we only used it for half a year because we realized we needed a more advanced solution.

Dell PowerStore is a price performance product positioned as mid-range, making it the best fit for our needs.

We have not calculated the return on investment from implementing Dell PowerStore because we only have two Dell PowerStore units, making it difficult to count with such a small amount. However, since we can run our business fully online, I believe we have seen a return on investment, though I don't have specific numbers.

We are not currently considering any other solution besides Dell PowerStore. In the near future, we might implement an SCI solution, but what we have now is sufficient. For our partners, we sell and resell all Dell technology solutions, including VxRail, Dell PowerStore, PowerFlex, and PowerScale. We have competence in all these products.

Customer service for Dell PowerStore deserves a rating of nine out of ten, leaving room for improvement. Before Dell PowerStore, we used PowerVault from Dell, but we needed more efficient and advanced storage. Dell PowerStore as a mid-range solution, fits our needs very well. As a distributor, Dell PowerStore is the main storage and driver for our partners. Internally, we are building AI cases on PowerEdge servers currently. While we are not including Dell PowerStore today, we plan to do so in the future. Our partners are already using Dell PowerStore for AI purposes, with one recent case involving hospital image storage. 

I would rate Dell PowerStore 10 out of 10.

Our company's use case for these products includes SAN storage, virtual machines, and VM storage, particularly with Dell PowerStore, which we have been using for approximately four years now. 

The best feature of Dell PowerStore is its flexibility for expanding data storage. Dell PowerStore has helped our organization as it is a proven SAN solution that is expandable if we need it to be, and it is web-driven for manageability.

If I could improve anything about Dell PowerStore, there are a couple of in-the-weeds features that I would want to see, such as the size of snapshots to know when we can expire some of them.

We have been using Dell PowerStore for approximately four years. 

From what I have seen, it is absolutely scalable.

Our organization has about 700 to 750 employees.

I would evaluate the customer service and technical support as good. We normally go through our reseller, and then they contact Dell, and we collaborate together.

Positive

The change to Dell PowerStore occurred when Compellent, our previous solution, reached end of life. We transitioned from Compellent to Dell PowerStore.

I have seen a return on investment with Dell PowerStore as it does what we wanted it to do. It gives me peace of mind.

I have experience with the pricing and licensing. I was involved in the purchasing process, though I was not the final decision-maker.

If someone asked me about Dell PowerStore, I would say that it is priced appropriately.

We did not evaluate anyone else when we made the transition. Our reseller, with whom we have had a relationship for 20 years, looked out for our best interest.

We use PowerScale for our AI requirements, particularly with end-user cameras and similar applications. 

I rate Dell PowerStore eight out of ten.

Some of the primary use cases that we deploy Dell PowerStore for is for fairly normal infrastructure things. We have one offer at the moment where we have a customer considering a replacement of Oracle database appliances with Dell PowerEdge servers and Dell PowerStore. 

It's for a utility company which requires strict governance standards. Furthermore, they are implementing Cyber Vault, which complements their end-to-end Dell infrastructure.

It is hard for me to quantify how Dell PowerStore has supported growth or operational successes for those companies because I'm not directly involved with the clients. 

We have had some successful projects in the last year from small to medium-sized projects. The notable aspect is not just from the customer's point of view. Internally, our project teams have confidence when they're working with that technology.

The biggest trust element is people are very happy to depend on a Dell infrastructure. When we talk to them about infrastructure, we will say, 'We need an infrastructure for a certain project.' 

We work with our Dell partner team to see which experts we need to get involved. When that brings Dell PowerStore into it, the features users appreciate include ease of use, security, dependability, and scalability. 

The natural progression of the Dell PowerStore family into bigger offerings and the integration between them is something that clients appreciate.

The initial setup was a bit cumbersome. 

We have been using the solution since shortly after product launch, with a range of clients having different levels of demand, and we tend to move with the technology as it advances.

Based on our experience with different customers, there has been uniform success rather than any issues. We are prepared to address any issues that might arise.

While I cannot comment extensively on the technical aspects, what's appealing to customers about Dell PowerStore is the scalability. They can start small, invest for what they need now, and have the confidence that when it grows, they will be able to scale with what they need.

I own the partnership and interface into the company, focusing more on that aspect than the specific technical details.

When we took over the clients, they had a real mismatch of solutions. They had a lot of HPE, some Oracle, and some generic equipment that they had acquired.

The initial setup was a little bit cumbersome. We had a bit of an adoption process internally. It wasn't immediately straightforward on day one.

We frequently engage the Dell account team or our own alliance team in the deal to ensure we get an SE who understands the specific business area and can adjust the offer accordingly.

I am not sufficiently involved with the projects to provide information about the ROI they actually see from implementing Dell PowerStore.

The pricing of Dell PowerStore is quite on point and very competitive overall. We are very in sync and in step, with our own account team and also with the account teams of our customers, which works out favorably commercially.

We have a focus on HPE or NetApp storage because that's their corporate requirement. We don't lead with these in discussions but have them available due to some client demands.

Make sure that you validate that Dell PowerStore is the right part of the Dell family. If it is, don't hesitate. 

Validate that with your Dell representatives. An SE can assess the exact requirements, or there might be a subject matter expert if it's a particular vertical implementation. Ensure you're on the right path before you proceed. 

Overall, I rate Dell PowerStore eight out of ten.

I am always hesitant to say something is a ten out of ten. There is always room for improvement. We see how they continue to evolve the product sets to match the evolving demands. In certain use cases, it's a ten out of ten, however, with the use cases changing every day, it presents different challenges.